Café Bauer (Leipzig)
The Café Bauer was from 1890 to 1922 operated coffee house in Leipzig and one of the finest that time.
location
Café Bauer was located south-east of Leipzig city center at Roßplatz No. 6, west of the confluence of Kurprinzstraße (today Grünewaldstraße) with Roßplatz. It was flanked to the left by the Hotel de Prusse and to the right by the Society House of Harmonie . The site has been vacant since it was destroyed in World War II .
history
The Café Bauer building, a four-story residential and commercial complex, was built in 1889/90 according to plans by the Berlin architect Albert Bohm (1853-1933). It was one of the most important historicist buildings in Leipzig. The facade combined elements of the Renaissance with those of the Baroque and Rococo and was decorated with plenty of figurative decorations.
The property extended 85 meters down from the street and was still built on with a rear building, which with two narrow side buildings formed a small courtyard. Behind the rear building there were horse stables with a riding arena on the first floor above, accessible via ramps.
Café Bauer was on the ground floor and on the first floor of the front building. The splendid furnishings of the guest rooms were modeled on the café of the same name in Berlin , which opened in 1878 . There was also a pool room and a reading room. The café was open almost around the clock, namely until 4:00 a.m. It also served as a venue for various clubs.
At the beginning of the First World War , the French term “café” was replaced by “coffee house”. During the war and the troubled years that followed, the economic difficulties for the house grew. Finally, in 1922, the coffeehouse had to be completely closed. Some of the rooms were converted into representative apartments or were used for exhibition purposes. From 1922 to 1930 the Leipzig branch of the Girozentrale of the Saxon Community Association was also rented in the house.
As early as Christmas 1912, the “Picadilly-Lichtspiele” cinema with 1,062 seats was opened in the building complex, which in 1914 was patriotically renamed “Vaterland-Lichtspiele”. From 1918 it was called “Universum-Lichtspiele” and from 1928 “Gloria-Lichtspiele”.
At the end of the 1930s the “Kaffee Astra” was opened in the building, but could not continue the great tradition of its predecessor. The building was destroyed in the bombing raid on Leipzig on December 4, 1943 . The still existing open space is to be included in the planning for Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz on the occasion of the construction of the Leipzig Unity and Freedom Monument.
The Café Bauer in front with the Harmonie society house and the panorama
Café Bauer's guest room on the ground floor
The guest room of Café Bauer on the first floor
At Roßplatz when the Pleißenburg was still standing
The Roßplatz with the New Town Hall in the background
Individual evidence
- ^ Bildindex.de Café Bauer, Leipzig
literature
- Horst Riedel: Stadtlexikon Leipzig from A to Z. PRO LEIPZIG, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-936508-03-8 , p. 84
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 8.8 ″ N , 12 ° 22 ′ 40.6 ″ E